Doty out for remainder of season
South Carolina quarterback Luke Doty will miss the remainder of the season, head coach Shane Beamer announced Tuesday.
Doty, who has been dealing all season with the remnants of the midfoot sprain he suffered during preseason practice, re-aggravated that same injury this past Saturday against Vanderbilt.
The sophomore will undergo season-ending surgery to repair the injury.
"Like I said the other night, he re-injured his foot," Beamer said. "We've met with some specialists the last couple of days. He will be done for the year. He will have surgery this week. That's the best thing for him, short term and long term, is to get this thing healed up and get him back."
Doty originally suffered the injury in mid-August when his foot was inadvertently stepped on as he stepped up to scramble from the pocket during a preseason practice.
After missing the first two games with what was called a "midfoot sprain," Doty returned during the Gamecocks' Week 3 matchup in Georgia and then started the next four games.
Despite his return to the field, the usually mobile Doty saw his explosiveness limited as he rebuilt his strength.
Doty was pulled late in the Vanderbilt game in favor of Zeb Noland, who drove the team the length of the field in the waning seconds of the game to help deliver a 21-20 win over the Commodores.
"From talking to a lot of people in this program, I had been told before the Vanderbilt game that he is one of, probably one and two - no disrespect to any other player - but one of the toughest players to ever play here at Carolina along with Connor Shaw," Beamer said. "He showed that Saturday night. Appreciate his toughness and hate it for him. Hate it for our football team. He's in great spirits, just talked to him before I came in here, he was out at practice today. But he's going to have surgery later this week, get everything cleaned up and fixed where he will be better long term and be able to come back."
Doty finishes the season completing 86 of 143 passes (60%) for 975 yards and five touchdowns with three interceptions in five games played with four starts.
Beamer has already announced that Noland will start this weekend's game at Texas A&M. He also confirmed that Jason Brown will serve as the backup quarterback, though he also praised freshman Colten Gauthier for his progress.
The former graduate assistant who was added to the roster as a Super Senior in August after Doty's initial injury started the first two games of the season.
Noland has completed 32 of 55 attempts (58.18%) for 482 yards, six touchdowns and an interception this season.
The Gamecocks will face Texas A&M this Saturday at 7:30 p.m. on SEC Network.
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